Nicholas Eastop, Bass Trombone

Nicholas Eastop has been The Chamber Orchestra of Europe’s bass trombonist since 1982.

Nicholas was born in 1961 in Reading, UK. He took up the trombone at the age of 11, studying with Pat Kelly, and moved on to the bass trombone two years later. Taking to it “like a duck to water”, Nicholas promptly won a place in The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain.

A year later he became an intermediate student at The Royal Academy of Music, where his teacher was Harold Nash. He subsequently won a scholarship to study full time at the Academy. During his studies there he won two major prizes: one for wind ensemble playing and the other for solo brass performance.

Membership of The European Union Youth Orchestra between 1978 and 1982 was an important time for Nicholas. He played under some of the great conductors of the age and was present at the birth of a new orchestra: the COE!

Nicholas moved to Sweden in 1990 (to marry COE violinist Ulrika Jansson!) where, as well as working a freelance bass trombonist, he is curator of the musical instrument collection at the Swedish Museum of Performing Arts.

The Royal Academy of Music awarded him the honour Associate of The Royal Academy of Music (ARAM) in 2006.

Since 2012 he has held a glider pilot’s license and spends as much of the summer months as he can chasing thermals across the Swedish countryside.

Listen to Nick and his wife Ulrika Jansson in interview with Simon Mundy on Interlude, the COE podcast.